Common Sense Agriculture's Blog

I meant to get this post up last week, but, well…..

This year I give thanks for the consumers who purchase what we grow and raise, the farmers and ranchers who provide the bountiful choices we so enjoy and particularly the hands that prepare the food.

In preparing for Thanksgiving this year I was thinking of the wonderful and delicious dishes that I have been so blessed to be able to try over the years. Some of the recipes have been handed down, some are new.

Dessert

My favorite dessert comes from my great-grandmother, passed to my grandmother and now my mother. Shoefly Pie, a blend of molasses, flour and sugar, best when less flour is used, making it chewy and very enjoyable with a hot cup of coffee…especially for breakfast . My first memories of this delicious pie goes back to when I learned to play canasta in great grandmother’s home.

Vegetable

When it comes to favorite vegetable dishes it’s a toss-up between another of my great grandmothers recipes for broccoli with cheese, sour cream and cream of mushroom soup, which I now prepare. This dish is what started my love for broccoli…thank you grandma. The other is a dish, discovered and prepared by my mother-in-law, sweet potato casserole, which is never around for left over’s. I was first enticed by this dish when I spent my first Thanksgiving with my wife, away from home… definitely a good omen for the future.

Fruit

As for fruit, my mother prepares a fresh fruit salad with a brandy dressing…she has yet to share how to make it…but I won’t complain. I can’t remember when I first enjoyed this tantalizing combination…perhaps it is because of the brandy.

As you sit down at the table this year, whose dish are you most looking forward to and what is it?

Feel free to share recipes and stories…as long as it doesn’t place your life in jeopardy.

Broccoli Casserole

Pre heat oven to 350. Fill the bottom of a 9 x 14 dish with broccoli. Season the broccoli (I use a mix of lemon pepper, mustard, garlic and oregano). In a separate bowl, mix 2 cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup, 1 1/2 cups of sour cream, 1/2 - 3/4 cup milk and 1/2 cup small curd cottage cheese. Mix until smooth. Pour evenly over the broccoli. Cover with grated cheese, 3 - 4 cups. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes for crisp broccoli, 20 - 25 minutes for soft broccoli.

I finished discing the evening before having to leave for a bull sale. The long range forecast was calling for precipitation in five days…three days at the sale would leave me two days to get the wheat drilled before the rain/snow began to fall…if the meteorologist was correct.

Since I was planting wheat, an annual and not alfalfa or pasture, I did not run a box scraper or land plane following discing. Instead, I hooked up a roterra, followed by the drill, followed by the cultipacker.

The roterra is PTO driven and further breaks up the remaining sod clods and then gently packs the soil in front of the drill. The drill then lays the seed in a small furrow, 2″ deep for red wheat in our soil. The cultipacker then follows the drill and packs the soil on top of the seed. Read more…

The announcement today that the “Super Committee” had FAILED, made me thoroughly DISGUSTED!

I was so disgusted that I took an entire 15 minutes to compile a bill for Congress to take up immediately upon their return to D.C. following Thanksgiving.

112^th CONGRESS

1^st SESSION

H.R. _ _ _ _

AN ACT

To balance the budget, eliminate the deficit and restore long-term economic stability.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

1. the budgets of ALL departments, agencies, programs, entitlements and all branches of government will be reduced by five percent, effective immediately;
2. all salaries, to all ELECTED and APPOINTED Federal officials will be suspended, effective immediately;
3. all insurance coverage held by all elected Federal officials will be suspended, effective immediately;
4. and all assets belonging to ELECTED Federal officials will be suspended, effective immediately.

The previously established conditions may be lifted when and only when:

1. a balanced budget is passed and signed by the President;
2. a plan to eliminate the deficit by 2022 is passed and signed by the President;
3. a plan to make Social Security solvent is passed and signed by the President;
4. and a plan to make Medi Care solvent is passed and signed by the President.

EFFECTIVE DATE - The actions of this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.

Passed the House of Representatives, November 28, 2011

Attest:

Clerk

Off and on, over the past few months, I have seen and participated in several discussions relating to labeling and specifically, labels relating to GMO’s. Twitter is not the best place to have this discussion, in my opinion, so I have put together my thoughts on the subject here.

GMO vs GEO

I catch myself using these two terms interchangeably and I should not be. There is a major difference between genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and genetically engineered organisms (GEO’s).

Modify: to limit; to make minor changes in; to make basic or fundamental changes in often to give a new orientation to or to serve a new end.

Engineer: the creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures; to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions.

All biological organisms, plants, animals, bacteria, etc., have been modified, or changed, since the beginning of time. In some cases it has been through natural processes, outside of the direct influence of man. In other instances, man has directly modified through selection. For example, keeping wheat that had more grains per head, grass that could tolerate drought, cattle that gain weight quicker or more efficiently are all manners in which man has modified organisms.

GEO’s, on the other hand, have been engineered my man to exhibit specific traits. Plants have been engineered to withstand drought, repel insects, disease and the infamous herbicide Roundup. Arizona State provides a fairly clear dissertation on Plant Genetic Engineering. Read more…

12' Offset Sod Disc

After letting the field set for about a week, it was time to disc.

The process of discing breaks up the turned soil and sod resulting from plowing. We utilized a 12′ offset sod disc for this field, due to the presence of orchard grass and fescue, with both create heavy sod. Read more…